216th Motor Rifle Division

The 216th Motor Rifle Division was a division of the Soviet Ground Forces. It was descended from the 216th Rifle Division, a Soviet infantry division of the Red Army. It was established at Staro Konstantinov in May 1941. It fought at Kharkov and in Karelia, Crimea, and Kurland.

After the defensive fighting on the borders it was reformed in Kharkov as the 216th Rifle Division which became the skeleton of the garrison of the city. The Front staff directed that the defenders of Kharkov should abandon the city on the night of 25 October 1941. However the city garrison staff, under General I.I. Marshalkov, and the efforts of the 38th Army, also present, were not well coordinated. Thus the Division received orders simultaneously from the city defense staff, and from the 38th army staff. As a result of the confusion the Germans managed to seize one of the bridges into the city.

The Division was part of the Fourth Army in the Transcaucasian Military District until 1955, and was for a brief period the 104th Mechanised Division. It was renamed the 216th Motor Rifle Division in 1965, and then disbanded 1985.